Soul Mark
by nekilarose
Summary: Travelers AU in which they end up in a century in which soul marks are still widely used.


"Great job, everyone." Mac told the team, "Resume Protocol 5." He glanced at his watch and cursed, "speaking of Protocol 5, does anyone know what the appropriate gift for a 10 year anniversary is in this time?"

"Well, how about jewelry?" Marcy suggested. She held out her wrist showing off a woven bracelet, "David gave me this last week, he said it was for our 6 month anniversary. I think Kat would appreciate something like this, only sparklier."

"Boss, you know you can never go wrong with diamonds." Trevor chimed in. "They're worthless in our time, but here in this century? It's gonna be your best bet."

Mac sighed and looked towards the other two members of his team for guidance. Philip shrugged, "Trev's right, diamonds are a sure thing, but" he gestured to his computer, "a quick search says that the traditional gift for 10 years is something with either tin or aluminum."

"You got anything to add?" He called out to their tactician who simply shook her head. She had enough relationship issues of her own, she didn't need to borrow others. She resumed unpacking and putting away her gear to the sounds of the rest of the team bickering.

By the time she was done stripping the weapons down, cleaning them, then putting them back together, it was quiet in the garage. She was sure Philip was around somewhere, but couldn't immediately see him. She spotted Poppy in his tank and took a seat beside it, just watching the turtle wander aimlessly around.

"Shouldn't you be headed home?" Philip's voice cut into her daydreaming.

Carly fought the urge to snap at him, it wasn't his fault she got stuck with a teething toddler and a drunken partner who was becoming even more verbally abusive towards her. Carly knew it was only a matter of time before he raised a hand in her direction, and when that happened, she didn't know if she'd be able to stop herself from beating him senseless.

"I was just looking at Poppy and wondering if I should get a pet for Jeffrey Jr." She tried to cover herself, but she knew Philip didn't believe her. But he blessedly played along and looked up suggestions for a future pet that would be age appropriate for a young child.

She was starting to feel a little more relaxed, being around their historian always had that effect on her, she noticed, when her phone chimed with a message:

_Where the hell are you?_

Carly straightened in her seat as if getting ready for battle, it looked like it would be one of those nights where Jeff was belligerent and demanding. She disliked these nights because he would be argumentative and question everything she did or said. She half preferred the nights where he drank himself into a stupor, at least on those nights he pretty much left her alone.

"Guess I gotta go." She gave Philip a grateful smile for the reprieve and bent to retrieve her bag. Maybe she should swing by the store and get another case just to help tip him over into a drunken sleep.

"Copper."

"What?"

Philip shuffled his feet and gave her a half smile, "Copper is the traditional gift for a couple who are celebrating their 7 year anniversary."

She looked at him in confusion, "I'll have to keep that in mind." She gave him a wave and closed the door softly. Her drive home was spent wondering why he decided to tell her that fact seemingly out of the blue. Philip had a habit of throwing out tiny scraps of information that seemed useless at the time, but soon would prove to be a valuable key piece of knowledge. As she pulled into her driveway Carly heard her son crying and sighed, she had more important things to worry about, the meaning would soon enough be clear.

* * *

That meaning became clear a week later as she bundled a shrieking Jeffrey Jr into her vehicle and sped back to the garage. She glanced at her hands that were spotted with blood and were shaking with either rage or adrenaline, she couldn't tell at the moment.

_'And all over a small mark.'_ She thought to herself.

"Carly please slow down, you don't need to be pulled over right now." Philips voice over her comms was soft and calm, as if trying to soothe a wild animal.

"Shut up!" She snapped. Jeffrey Jr responded to her mood and started crying louder, anxiously kicking his feet and waving his arms frantically. "I'm so sorry." She apologized to the hysterical baby. "So, so, sorry." She swerved into the garage, thankful that the door was already up and screeched to a stop.

"Carly-" Mac reached out to her but stopped when he saw her bloodied hands. She ducked back inside and grabbed her son and handed him to Marcy, "Look him over, I think he hit his head when Jeff-" Her voice broke as she tried to explain, even though at this point it was obvious. There was a mark on the baby's face where his father had dropped him in order to get to Carly.

Marcy nodded and hustled him off to her part of the garage where she had a table ready to lay him down on. She had to grip him tightly because as soon as he was separated from Carly, his screams began anew and he struggled to get back to his mother.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. I'm just gonna look you over to make sure you're not hurt." Marcy bounced him a few times, and Trevor joined in with a few toys to try and distract him while Carly marched into the bathroom to clean her hands. She scrubbed the blood off while Mac regarded her in the mirror.

"Is he still alive at least?" Mac asked.

"Yes, 3468, he's still alive." She sneered. "I didn't break Protocol 3."

"C'mon, that's not what-" He broke off, "I wasn't asking because of the damn protocols." He walked into the room, "I just needed to know if I had to step in to smooth out-"

Carly slammed her hand on the sink, "Where the fuck was this offer to help months ago?"

"I tried to ask, but you told me to mind my own business!" Mac shot back. He held out his hands, "I don't want to fight, I just want to know what happened."

"Soul mark." She dried her hands and turned to face the team leader.

"What?" Mac's face scrunched up in confusion.

"Her soul mark." Carly repeated. "Apparently, I don't have it anymore." She hung her head, thinking back to hours earlier.

* * *

_"Where's your mark?"_

_Carly looked up from where she had been watching her son finally sleep after spending an hour trying to put him to bed. She did not remember her sisters being this resistant to bedtime. Then again, they didn't have nearly as many stimulants in the future to distract children._

_"Your mark." Jeff repeated, "Where. Is. It?"_

_"I don't know what you're-" Crack!_

_Her head snapped sharply to the left as the blow took her by surprise. Sure he'd yelled and pushed her around before, but never had he outright hit her. Carly felt her temper rise as she calculated how quick she could get him away from the sleeping child before she unleashed hell on him._

_She didn't have to think for too long, he grabbed her arm and half dragged her out of the room. "I know having a mark removed costs money, so where'd you get the money from, hm?"_

_Carly ripped her arm out of his hand, "I have no idea what you're talking about, but if you hit me ever again, I will rip your arm from your socket and beat you with it."_

_Jeff laughed and swayed drunkenly, "You're not gonna do shit." He pointed at her, "I'm not going to ask you again, where is your goddamn mark? It's our anniversary, and you go and pull this shit?"_

_Carly was lost for answers. She knew that in this century soul marks were still a thing, however as the decades went by, people received them less and less. She herself had never seen one in her time, didn't even know anyone that had, well, except Trevor. But Traveler 0113 was old, so of course he would have seen them, he may have even had one once upon a time._

_All of a sudden she recalled Philip's cryptic words from a week earlier. "Are you talking about our 7 year anniversary?"_

_"Don't try to pretend you don't remember. You always said that the day we met was the best day of your life." He lifted the sleeve of his sweater and turned over his wrist. On the underside were two small intertwined hearts with initials. Or, that's what it was supposed to be, Carly theorized. Because on Jeff's wrist there was one whole heart, and the other had mostly faded away, including the initials. _

_Jeff looked up in drunken horror, "What? You don't love me anymore?" He dropped his sleeve and advanced towards her, "You out here ho-ing around with that FBI agent I saw you with?"_

_"Jeff, calm down." Carly had backed up towards the couch, she knew she had a baton hidden there that she could use if necessary._

_"CALM DOWN?" He thundered at her._

_Carly groaned as his yell woke up the baby that she had worked so hard to get to sleep. She brushed by him on her way back into the bedroom. But Jeff had other plans, "Where do you think you're going?"_

_"To get the crying baby before the neighbors complain again?" She threw out sarcastically. Which was the wrong thing to say, apparently. He rushed by her into the room and picked up his son, "Oh, this baby that we made when we were soulmates? Do you even still want him?"_

_"Of course I still want him, give him to me, you're drunk Jeff." She wanted to add 'as usual' but thought the better of it._

_"No." He moved to the other side of the room. "If you don't want me, then you don't get him." He said smugly._

_"Jeff, give me my son before you drop him." Carly wouldn't beg him for anything else, but she wanted to get her boy away from him. Not for the first time, she cursed Protocol 3, killing Jeff would do society a favor._

_"When did it happen, huh? When did you stop loving me?" He pestered her for answers that she truly didn't have. Carly didn't know when the mark left, it may have happened when her host died. Which would make sense since the marks were based on the soul of the person inhabiting the body. Her host may have loved Jeff, but Traveler 3465 wanted him to die a slow death as soon as possible._

_"Maybe it was all the drinking?" Carly couldn't help herself, the words burst out. "Maybe that's when. Or maybe it was when you kept coming home and doing nothing for your son except yelling at him to be quiet even though he's just a baby. Or maybe it's all the bruises you've given over the years." She nodded, "Yeah, that'll kill the love between anyone."_

* * *

Carly shook her head, "Next thing I know, he dropped the baby and came after me." She shrugged, "which is what I wanted."

"Are you okay?" Mac asked softly.

"Me?" She scoffed, "I'm fine. Hit him with a piece of the crib until he stopped moving then came here." She looked up as a thought occurred to her, "How did you know to be here?" The whole team had gone home for the night, no one else should have been at the garage, except for….

"Philip called." Mac confirmed her suspicions.

Carly nodded, "Of course he did. Come to think of it, I think he did try to talk me down when I was…well beating the shit out of Jeff."

Mac focused on her, "Carly-"

"I'm not going back." She met his eyes head on. "I just barely managed to not beat him to death. But I can't guarantee that if there's a next time, I'll be able to stop."

"Protocol 5 states-" Mac started to say.

"Fuck Protocol 5." Carly said vehemently.

"Look, I'll talk to some people at the FBI and see what I can do about him." He tried to placate her, "But Carly-"

She pushed past him, "Then you go live with him, I'm not going back." She needed to hold her son. She spotted him sitting with Philip, who had taken Poppy out of his tank and they were both playing with the turtle.

"He's fine." Marcy came up on her left side, "No permanent damage, he'll have a mark, but it can be attributed to a simple fall. He's a strong healthy boy." She gave Carly a sympathetic smile and squeezed her arm. "Do you need to be looked at?"

"No, I'm fine. He got in one hit, but the rest was all me." Carly answered absentmindedly, still watching her son. He'd calmed down and seemed content to sit with Philip and play with Poppy. She shouldn't be surprised though, Philip was the one besides her of course, that her son had spent the most time with. Most days she dawdled on returning home to deal with Jeff's crap, and so her son spent a good amount of time in the garage with her and the historian just hanging out. They even had their own corner of the loft filled with baby things for him to play with.

Trevor stood on her other side, "Boss and I are going to pay Jeff a little visit, do you want us to pick up anything while we're there?" She wrote up a short list and thanked the engineer, who waved her off. "It's nothing that we shouldn't have done before. I'm just sorry that it took us so long." Marcy left soon after the other two, telling Carly to call her if she needed anything.

She shuffled over to where Philip was still holding her enthralled son. The second she was in his line of sight though, he strained to get to her. She took him in her arms, and even though Marcy proclaimed he was fine, she still ran her hands all over just to make sure.

"Thanks for keeping him company." She said softly, running her hand over Jeffrey's back soothingly. "Did you know that was going to happen?" He had called in the whole team before the situation had escalated beyond her control, and she knew for a fact that he dropped in on her comms every now and then.

He fidgeted in his seat. "I'm sorry if I overstepped."

"You didn't, but you mentioned something about an anniversary last week, and I didn't put it together in time." She stared at her son now laying pliant in her arms.

"Well, we don't have to deal with them where we're from. And I had no idea about the marks disappearing when someone was overwritten. There was nothing about that in any of our briefings or updates." He paused and stared off into space, "You may have inadvertently stumbled on to something that would be very useful information for future teams."

"Glad I could be of service." Carly said dryly.

* * *

Later, after Mac and Trevor came back (with Mac assuring her that she wouldn't have any more trouble with Jeff) she settled in the loft with Jeffrey Jr sleeping in a pack and play right next to her. She thought back on the subject of soul marks and soulmates. She knew for a fact that her host did have a mark once upon a time, it was in her folder. But with everything that happened since her team arrived, she doesn't know when it disappeared.

The spot on her wrist was blank, no sign of there ever being a mark there at all. Was that because she didn't have a soulmate? Or was it because she was a traveler and they didn't have one as a rule? She'd have to remember to ask Marcy when she saw her next.

"Are you okay? Do you guys need anything?" Philip asked as he was about to head down to sleep on the couch for the night. He had graciously offered his bed to her for a few nights until Jeffrey was completely moved out of the house. Carly had her doubts about him actually sleeping anywhere. With the baby teething and being up all hours of the night, it seemed like he was always awake whenever she needed help.

"Do you have a soul mark?" Carly watched as he stumbled slightly on the steps.

"Oh, I um. I think I do, but it's not finished?" The upswing on the end of the sentence made it sound like a question instead of a statement. He gestured to his ankle area, "it's just a bunch of lines, but it's always changing, so I guess this century is still trying to decide what to do with me." He chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"Right." Carly laid back, pulling the covers over her tired body. The excitement of the day was rapidly catching up to her.

"Goodnight. I'm just downstairs if you need anything." He stepped down, but popped up again, "Oh and I'm planning on making pancakes in the morning. I've gotten pretty good at making them." He ducked down again and she heard his steps fading as he climbed down.

Carly turned over in her borrowed bed and inhaled slightly, the pillow smelled like the shampoo that Philip used, something that advertised of smelling like the ocean. She thought about the marks on her left ankle. She had thought it was bruising from a mission, but it didn't hurt and never went away, so she just left it alone, figuring it would sort itself out eventually.

Apparently she did have a soulmate.


End file.
